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Carer criticises blue badge application process

THE daughter of an 89-year-old disabled woman says checks to make sure blue badge applicants are telling the truth have become humiliating and unnecessary.

Deborah Lawes, who cares for her mum Edith Nichol, re-applied for a blue badge in August but says she was told her mum wasn’t disabled enough to merit the badge, which allows the holder to park much closer to facilities such hospitals and town centres.

Mrs Nichol, who has been disabled since she was 18-months-old, has polio and has one small short leg and is a wheelchair user.

But when she attended an assessment, in Marylands Day Centre, in Shrub End, in October, she was told she should not have come, because her disability is so obvious.

An Essex County Council spokesperson said as of April 1, much of the application process is now controlled by the Department for Transport.

“We sympathise with the daughter and her mum and have done all that we can to process this case quickly and effectively,” she said.